Smart notepad for improved workflow efficiency for insurance claim associates

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented method for facilitating handling of a call from an insurance customer regarding a loss event includes presenting to a user, by a workbench application executing on a computing device, one or more notes fields in which free-form text may be entered by the user on a user interface display presented on one or more display screens, receiving, via an input device and the user interface display, free-form text that the user entered in at least one of the one or more notes fields, analyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more keywords having relevance to the loss event, communicating loss report information to a loss reporting tool via an API, the loss report information including the one or more identified keywords, and automatically populating, by the loss reporting tool, one or more loss reporting fields using the loss report information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/881,474,filed on Oct. 13, 2015 and entitled “Smart Notepad for Improved WorkflowEfficiency for Insurance Claim Associates,” which claims the benefit of(1) U.S. Patent Application No. 62/090,520, filed on Dec. 11, 2014 andentitled “Integrated Tool Providing Improved Workflow Efficiency forInsurance Claim Associates,” and (2) U.S. Patent Application No.62/129,148, filed on Mar. 6, 2015 and entitled “Smart Notepad forImproved Workflow Efficiency for Insurance Claim Associates.” Thedisclosure of each of the above-identified patent applications is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure generally relates to insurance and, morespecifically, to claim handling and/or other insurance-related tasks.

BACKGROUND

When handling calls from customers regarding accidents or other lossevents, insurance claim associates typically receive information fromthe customers faster than the associates are able to locate and populatethe appropriate fields provided by a loss reporting/intake tool. As aresult, claim associates often use text editor tools to take free-formnotes during those calls, and later refer to those notes in order topopulate the loss report fields. The use of electronic notes may allowthe claim associate to capture some information that was not providedwithin the linear/sequential “scripts” (ordered sets of questions)conventionally used for loss reporting, and therefore may reduce theneed for the claim associate to later ask questions seeking informationthat the customer had already provided. While note-taking of this sortmay provide such a benefit, the claim associate still must manuallyparse through those notes at a later time in order to find informationthat is needed and/or useful for the loss report. This process may cause“dead air” time during the call with the customer, an additional burdenon the claim associate, and general delays/inefficiencies in the lossreporting process.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present embodiments may, inter alia, provide a tool that enablesclaim associates or other users (e.g., other insurance provideremployees) to enter free-form text notes, identifies/recognizes keywordsthat are, or may be, relevant to the loss report, and uses the keywordsto populate one or more fields of a loss reporting/intake tool. As aresult, the time required to handle a customer call and/or enter a lossreport may be reduced, ultimately leading to increased customersatisfaction.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for facilitating handling,by a user of a computing device having one or more display screens andan input device, of a call from an insurance customer regarding a lossevent may include: (1) presenting to the user, by a workbenchapplication executing on the computing device, one or more notes fieldsin which free-form text may be entered by the user on a user interfacedisplay presented on at least one of the one or more display screens;(2) receiving, by the workbench application and via the input device andthe user interface display, free-form text that the user entered in atleast one of the one or more notes fields; (3) analyzing, by theworkbench application, the received free-form text to identify one ormore keywords having relevance to the loss event; (4) communicating, bythe workbench application, loss report information to a loss reportingtool via an application programming interface (API), the loss reportinformation including the one or more identified keywords; and/or (5)automatically populating, by the loss reporting tool, one or more lossreporting fields using the loss report information.

In another aspect, a computing system for facilitating handling ofinsurance-related calls includes a computing device comprising one ormore display screens and an input device. The computing device may beconfigured to execute a workbench application to: (1) present to a userone or more notes fields in which free-form text may be entered by theuser on a user interface display presented on at least one of the one ormore display screens; (2) receive, via the input device and the userinterface display, free-form text that the user entered in at least oneof the one or more notes fields; (3) analyze the received free-form textto identify one or more keywords having relevance to the loss event;and/or (4) cause a loss reporting tool to automatically populate one ormore loss reporting fields using loss report information, at least bycommunicating the loss report information to the loss reporting tool viaan application programming interface (API), the loss report informationincluding the one or more identified keywords.

In another aspect, one or more non-transitory, computer-readable mediastore instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, maycause the one or more processors to execute a workbench application to:(1) present to a user one or more notes fields in which free-form textmay be entered by the user on a user interface display presented on atleast one of one or more display screens; (2) receive, via an inputdevice and the user interface display, free-form text that the userentered in at least one of the one or more notes fields; (3) analyze thereceived free-form text to identify one or more keywords havingrelevance to the loss event; and/or (4) cause a loss reporting tool toautomatically populate one or more loss reporting fields using lossreport information, at least by communicating the loss reportinformation to the loss reporting tool via an application programminginterface (API), the loss report information including the one or moreidentified keywords.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures described below depict various aspects of the system andmethods disclosed herein. It should be understood that each figuredepicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed system andmethods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with apossible embodiment thereof.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary platform in which an integrated tool mayimprove workflow efficiency for claim associates, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary environment including components associatedwith the provision, operation and use of an integrated tool that mayimprove workflow efficiency for claim associates, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary user interface display that provides, andrequests confirmation of, information about a caller, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary display arrangement that may be presentedafter caller information is confirmed, according to one embodiment.

FIGS. 5-8 depict exemplary user interface displays that may be presentedwithin the display arrangement of FIG. 4, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 depicts an exemplary display arrangement that may be presentedwhile waiting for a new customer call, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary display arrangement in which a claimassociate has entered notes during a customer call, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 11 depicts an exemplary user interface display that provides anintegrated search tool, in a scenario in which a first search mode hasbeen selected, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12 depicts an exemplary user interface display that provides anintegrated search tool, in a scenario in which a second search mode hasbeen selected, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 13 depicts an exemplary loss reporting tool user interface display,after loss location information has been entered in the notes area ofthe display of FIG. 10, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 14 depicts an exemplary user interface display that provides anintegrated search tool, in a scenario in which a third search mode hasbeen selected, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 15 depicts an exemplary user interface display, in a scenario wherethe filter control of the display in FIG. 14 has been expanded,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for facilitatinghandling of a customer call using automated caller identification,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for facilitatinghandling of a customer call using keyword recognition, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 18 depicts a flow diagram of still another exemplary method forfacilitating handling of a customer call using an improved search tool,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 19 depicts an exemplary computer system in which the techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented, according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Exemplary Integrated Tool that Improves WorkflowEfficiency for Claim Associates

The present embodiments relate to, inter alia, the provision, operationand/or use of an integrated tool that enables claim associates (and/orusers) to more efficiently perform their daily tasks, such as lossreporting/intake and/or other claim-related activities. The integratedtool may be used for any type or types of insurance, such as automobileor other vehicle insurance, fire/home insurance or personal propertyinsurance, for example. While the integrated tool may, in someembodiments and/or scenarios, be used by an individual other than aclaim associate, for ease of explanation the description that followsprimarily refers to users as claim associates.

In some embodiments, the tool integrates/links commonly-usedapplications into a single user interface (UI) for a claim associate.Each application linked to the integrated tool may be automaticallyopened at startup of the integrated tool (e.g., when the claim associatelogs in at a workstation) and made ready for immediate use by theassociate, or may be available to the associate via a launch shortcut inan integrated tool area, for example. Thus, the claim associate may notneed to separately seek out each application, open each application, andposition the window(s) corresponding to each application on the monitorscreen(s) when preparing for the day's business or during the course ofa call.

The integrated tool may provide customer overview functionality, whichmay help the claim associate quickly gain familiarity with the customerand his or her situation. When a customer calls the insurance provider,for example, the customer's phone number may be determined using a“caller ID” feature, and used to access the customer'saccount/information. For example, the phone number may be used to searchone or more internal databases and/or systems/applications to retrievevarious kinds of customer information, such as information about thecustomer himself/herself (e.g., name, home address, email address,etc.), the customer's policy or policies with the insurance provider,the agent(s) of the customer, the family members of the customer, thecustomer's recent interactions with the insurance provider (e.g., bytelephone, email, Internet, an online claim service, etc.), the claimhistory of the customer, etc. The information may then be displayedwithin the customer overview to provide the claim associate an “at aglance” view/understanding of the customer. Moreover, informationdisplayed in the customer overview may be linked to the correspondingcontent (e.g., the claims associate may be able to click on a displayedcustomer policy to link to more detailed information about that policy,a displayed open or closed claim to link to more detailed informationabout that claim, etc.). The configuration of the customer overview,and/or the information contained therein, may be dependent upon theuser's role/function (e.g., claim associate, underwriting, etc.), or maybe fixed.

In addition to integrating multiple, and possibly many, applications forthe claim associate, the integrated tool may provide integrated searchfunctionality. For example, search options that have conventionally beenprovided by multiple applications to search internal or externaldatabases or other sources (e.g., internal policy records, Internetsearches, etc.) may be combined in one common interface. Moreover,search results may be integrated with (e.g., used to automaticallypopulate fields in) one or more applications, either automatically orbased upon user input. For example, an interactive control may enablethe claim associate to specify the relation of a particular person, fromamong a list of people in a set of search results, to a loss event beingreported. The specified relation may then be used by the integrated toolto automatically populate one or more fields provided by a loss intaketool.

The integrated tool may also provide a “smart notepad” text editorapplication that recognizes data/information entered by the claimassociate and categorizes that data/information for direct entry intoone or more companion programs/applications. For example, the word“Ford” may be automatically recognized as a vehicle make and used topopulate a vehicle make field of a loss intake tool or otherapplication(s). As another example, the words “108th and Madison” may berecognized as a street intersection and used to populate a locationfield of a loss intake tool or other application(s).

By using one or more of the techniques described above, claim associatesor other insurance provider employees may more efficiently enterinformation, and/or more efficiently find information, while performingcommon tasks (e.g., entering information for loss reports while speakingto customers, handling calls from customers to check on the status ofclaims, etc.). As a result, both claim associates and customers mayexperience fewer delays and less frustration. Moreover, claim associatesmay be less likely to make errors during data entry (e.g., when using aloss reporting tool).

II. Exemplary Platform for Integrating Multiple Applications

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary platform 10 in which an integrated tool mayimprove workflow efficiency for claim associates, according to oneembodiment. In the example platform 10, the integrated tool may comprisea workbench application 12 that may link to, and provide a common userinterface for, a number of different tools/applications. The linkedtools/applications may include an integrated search tool 14, a texteditor application 16, a loss reporting (or “loss intake”) tool 18, anenterprise claim system 20 and/or one or more other applications/tools22 (e.g., an enterprise customer information system that managescustomer information, a mapping application, etc.).

Generally, the integrated search tool 14 may search across multipleinternal databases for policy information, customer information, claiminformation and/or other information. The integrated search tool 14 mayalso search one or more external sources, such as an Internet search(e.g., by accessing a third party web-based search engine) or a searchof an external map/geographic database (e.g., by accessing a third partyweb-based mapping application), etc. The integrated search tool 14 mayenable the claim associate to select different modes of searching, suchas a search mode to search for policyholders and their associated policyinformation, a search mode to search the Internet for service providers(e.g., body shops, tow yards, medical providers, etc.), and/or a searchmode to search the Internet and/or external databases for geographic/mapinformation. In some embodiments, the functionality of the integratedsearch tool 14 may be at least partially incorporated into the workbenchapplication 12 itself, rather than residing in a distinct softwarepackage in communication with the workbench application 12.

The text editor application 16 may enable the claim associate to enterfree-form notes while speaking with a customer. As discussed furtherbelow, the workbench application 12 may be configured to recognizekeywords (e.g., words or phrases) entered using the text editorapplication 16, and to take various actions in response (e.g.,auto-population of fields). In some embodiments, the functionality ofthe text editor application 16 may be incorporated into the workbenchapplication 12 itself, rather than a distinct software package (e.g.,Microsoft Notepad) in communication with the workbench application 12.

The loss reporting/intake tool 18 may generally enable the claimassociate to enter information relating to a potential claim (e.g., acustomer's accident description provided during a phone call), and maytransfer at least some of the entered information to the enterpriseclaim system 20 for claim setup (e.g., as information is entered, orafter the associate selects a virtual “submit” button, etc.). Theworkbench application 12 may also enable the claim associate to accessthe enterprise claim system 20 directly to view and/or modifyinformation for an open claim.

In other embodiments, the workbench application 12 may be linked to, andprovide a common user interface for, more, fewer and/or differentapplications/tools than those shown in FIG. 1. If the platform 10 isused for underwriting, for example, the linked applications/tools mayinclude other applications for viewing and/or updating policyinformation, rating information, etc. Moreover, in some embodiments, theset of tools/applications available to the user may depend on the roleand/or identity of the user. For example, a user may log into theworkbench application 12 by providing a user identifier, and the useridentifier may be used to identify the user's job function (e.g., claimassociate) and select the appropriate set of linked tools/applications(e.g., a first set for automobile claim handlers, a second set forfire/home claim handlers, a third set for underwriting employees, etc.).

Further detail about the provision, operation and use of the platform 10is provided below, according to various embodiments.

III. Exemplary Embodiment for the Provision, Operation and/or Use of anIntegrated Tool that Improves Workflow Efficiency for Claim Associates

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary environment 100 including componentsassociated with the provision, operation and use of an integrated toolthat may improve workflow efficiency for claim associates, according toone embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the environment 100 mayinclude a client device 102 and a computing system 104. The computingsystem 104 may include one or more servers of an insurance provider,such as a home/fire and/or automobile insurance company, for example.The user of the client device 102 may be an employee of the insuranceprovider (e.g., a claim associate/handler), for example. In theexemplary environment 100, the computing system 104 may becommunicatively coupled to the client device 102 via a network 106. Thenetwork 106 may be a single communication network, or may includemultiple communication networks of one or more types (e.g., one or morewired and/or wireless local area networks (LANs), and/or one or morewired and/or wireless wide area networks (WANs) such as the Internet).

The computing system 104 may include one or more persistent memories,which may store a workbench application 110 and a number of linkedapplications 112. As discussed above in connection with the platform 10of FIG. 1, the linked applications 112 may include a number of differentapplications, such as a loss reporting tool 114 (e.g., similar to lossreporting tool 18 of FIG. 1), an enterprise claim system 116 (e.g.,similar to enterprise claim system 20 of FIG. 1) and/or a text editortool 118 (e.g., similar to text editor tool 16 of FIG. 1), for example.The linked applications 112 may also include one or more othertools/applications 120, such as an enterprise customer informationsystem, a mapping application, etc., and may include third partyapplications and/or applications developed by the insurance provider. Inother embodiments, the linked applications 112 may include fewer and/ordifferent applications than those shown in FIG. 2.

The workbench application 110 (e.g., an application similar to theworkbench application 12 of FIG. 1) may include instructions of one ormore web pages (e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) instructions,JavaScript instructions, JavaServer Pages (JSP) instructions, and/or anyother type of instructions suitable for defining the content andpresentation of the web page(s)), and/or may include instructions of aplug-in, extension and/or stand-alone software component that may bedownloaded by the client device 102 from the computing system 104, forexample.

Generally, the workbench application 110 may provide claim associateswith a user interface that enables the associates to access the linkedapplications 112 (e.g., by providing user-selectable links/shortcuts toone or more of the linked applications 112, and/or by displaying theuser interface(s) of one or more of the linked applications 112 within,or otherwise in conjunction with, the user interface of the workbenchapplication 110). The user interface provided by the workbenchapplication 110 may be displayed entirely within a single window and/ormonitor screen, or may be distributed across multiple windows and/ormultiple monitor screens. In some embodiments, the particular set oflinked applications 112 that is accessible via the workbench application110 depends on the user and/or the user's role with the insuranceprovider. When a user logs in to the workbench application 110, forexample, the workbench application 110 may process the user's identifier(e.g., login name, password, etc.), and the appropriate set of linkedapplications 112 may be made available via the user interface of theworkbench application 110. The particular applications shown withinlinked applications 112 of FIG. 2 may correspond to a scenario in whichthe workbench application 110 has identified the user as a claimassociate, for example.

The persistent memory or memories of the computing system 104 may alsostore records 130, including policy records 132 containing informationon customer policies (e.g., policy numbers, policyholder names and otherinformation, coverages, limits, deductibles, etc.), claims records 134containing information on open and/or closed customer claims, and acommunication log 136 containing information relating to past customercontacts with the insurance provider (e.g., dates and summaries of pasttelephone calls, past emails, past instances in which on-line tools ofthe insurance provider were utilized, etc.) and/or past customercontacts with other entities associated with the insurance provider.

Each of policy records 132, claims records 134 and/or communication log136 may include a single database, or multiple databases. For example,policy records 132 may include a first database for auto policyinformation, a second database for fire/home policy information, etc.Similarly, claim records 134 may include a first database for auto claiminformation, a second database for fire/home claim information, etc. Asanother example, communication log 136 may include a first database fortelephone contacts between customers and the insurance provider, asecond database for online contacts between customers and the insuranceprovider, etc.

The persistent memory or memories of the computing system 104 may alsostore business rules 140. Business rules 140 may define any processes,procedures, algorithms, guidelines, etc., of the insurance provider. Forexample, business rules 140 may store role-based rules 154, which maydefine which set of linked applications 112 should be available to whichusers (e.g., based upon user job type/function, as discussed above),and/or may define which types of information that one or more of thelinked applications 112 may display to different types of users.

The instructions of the workbench application 110 may include a numberof application programming interfaces (APIs) 142. Generally, the APIs142 may enable the workbench application 110 to communicate with thelinked applications 112 by receiving data, messages and/or commands fromthe linked applications 112, and/or by passing data, messages and/orcommands to the linked applications 112. The workbench application 110may also include various units having different functionalities,including an integrated search unit 144, a caller determination unit146, an auto-population unit 148, a text recognition unit 150 and/or acontextual assistance unit 152.

In other embodiments, the workbench application 110 may include more,fewer and/or different units than are shown in FIG. 2, and/or one ormore of the units shown in FIG. 2 may instead be implemented by one ofthe linked applications 112. The instructions of the workbenchapplication 110 may perform the functions of the various units when theinstructions are executed by one or more processors of the computingsystem 104 (not shown in FIG. 2), for example. One, some or all of theunits 144, 146, 148, 150 and 152 may utilize the appropriate ones of theAPIs 142 as needed to implement the functions described herein.

The integrated search unit 144 may provide integrated searchcapabilities across one or more internal databases of the computingsystem 104 (e.g., within records 130), across one or more externalsources (e.g., using a web-based search engine and/or a web-basedmapping application), and/or by utilizing search features of one or moreapplications of linked applications 112 (e.g., an enterprise customerinformation system included in the other tools/applications 120). Theintegrated search unit 144 may provide a consistent, single userinterface that allows the claim associate to enter search terms. Theintegrated search unit 144 may also, or instead, perform searches basedupon calls/requests from other units (e.g., from caller determinationunit 146 and/or from text recognition unit 150, as discussed below).Results found by the integrated search unit 144 may be presented to theclaim associate, and may be integrated with one or more of the otherunits of the workbench application 110 and/or one or more of the linkedapplications 112 (e.g., as discussed further below in connection withthe auto-population unit 148). In some embodiments, the claim associatemay save search results and/or search parameters, and may later retrievesaved results to refine or act upon the search results.

The caller determination unit 146 may determine, or help to determine,the identity of a caller with whom the claim associate is speaking byphone. To this end, the caller determination unit 146 may interface witha telephone caller ID system (not shown in FIG. 2) that automaticallyidentifies caller phone numbers. The telephone caller ID system may be apart of a system provided by a telephone service provider, for example,and may include hardware, firmware and/or software configured toidentify incoming call phone numbers. The caller determination unit 146may provide the identified phone number to the integrated search unit144, which may then use the phone number to locate other informationassociated with the caller (e.g., name, home address, policies, claims,recent contacts with the insurance provider, etc.). To locate the callerinformation, the integrated search unit 144 may search multiple internaldatabases and/or systems, such as databases associated with differentbusiness lines (auto, fire/home, etc.) in policy records 132, databasesassociated with different business lines in claims records 134, one ormore databases within communication log 136, enterprise claim system116, and/or an enterprise customer information system (e.g., included inthe other tools/applications 120), for example. The caller informationmay be presented in a streamlined customer overview display within theuser interface of the workbench application 110, for example.

The auto-population unit 148 may automatically enter information intofields associated with one or more of the linked applications 112 (e.g.,one or more fields associated with the loss reporting tool 114, theenterprise claim system 116, etc.). The information used to populate thefield(s) may come from various sources. In some embodiments andscenarios, for example, the auto-population unit 148 may use informationthat the claim associate entered in a field associated with one of thelinked applications 112 as the source (e.g., so that it is not necessaryfor the claim associate to make duplicate entries of the sameinformation in other of the linked applications 112). In otherembodiments and/or scenarios, the auto-population unit 148 may useinformation associated with search results obtained by the integratedsearch unit 144 as the source. If the caller determination unit 146passed a phone number to the integrated search unit 144, and if theintegrated search unit 144 searched internal databases to locatepersonal information corresponding to that phone number (e.g., name,address, policy information, claim information, family members, etc.),for example, the auto-population unit 148 may use the locatedinformation as the source.

While the auto-population unit 148 is described herein as“automatically” entering information into fields, it is understood that,in some embodiments and/or scenarios, the claim associate may first beprompted to confirm that an entry is correct for a particular field,and/or may be prompted to choose the appropriate entry from among two ofmore candidate entries, etc. Returning to the embodiment and scenario inwhich the caller determination unit 146 passes a phone number to theintegrated search unit 144, for example, the integrated search unit 144may return a list of people and policies potentially matching the phonenumber (e.g., different people with different polices, and/or multipleentries of a single person but with different associated policies,etc.). The user interface of the workbench application 110 may thenprompt the claim associate to confirm the correct person and/or policybefore the auto-population unit 148 proceeds to populate any fieldsusing that information.

The text recognition unit 150 may identify/recognize keywords (e.g.,terms and/or phrases) that the claim associate entered using text editortool 118, and may categorize the keywords such that the auto-populationunit 148 may enter corresponding information into the appropriatefield(s) of one or more of the linked applications 112. If the claimassociate writes “Linda Johnson in auto accident on February 10, 2014”using text editor tool 118, for example, the text recognition unit 150may categorize “Linda Johnson” as a name, and pass the name to theauto-population unit 148 for entry in a name field of loss reportingtool 114 and/or enterprise claim system 116. Alternatively, oradditionally, the text recognition unit 150 may automatically pass thename to the integrated search unit 144 such that a search is conductedusing that name as a keyword (e.g., a search of policy records 132,claims records 134 and/or communication log 136). Continuing with theabove example, the text recognition unit 150 may categorize “February10, 2014” as a date, and pass the name to the auto-population unit 148for entry in a date of loss field of loss reporting tool 114 and/orenterprise claim system 116. In various embodiments, the textrecognition unit 150 may be configured to recognize names of people,dates, times of day, street names, street addresses, intersections, citynames, state names, vehicle information (e.g., make/model/year), serviceprovider names (e.g., body shop names), venue/point-of-interest names,and/or other types of information.

In some embodiments, the text recognition unit 150 may highlight (e.g.,underline) entered words and/or phrases that are identified as havingpotential (but unconfirmed) importance, and allow the claim associate toselect each highlighted word and/or phrase in order to open a menu ofpossible actions that may be performed. For example, the textrecognition unit 150 may recognize a series of numbers and words (e.g.,“1147 Madison Street”) as a likely address, and highlight that text forthe claim associate. The claim associate may then right-click on thetext to open a drop-down menu of options, such as a “Home Address”option to cause auto-population unit 148 to use that address to populatean insured's home address field (e.g., in a user interface of lossreporting tool 114), a “Map” option to cause the integrated search unit144 to retrieve a map showing the location of the address, an “Ignore”option to take no action based upon the address, and so on.

The contextual assistance unit 152 may generally determine dynamicand/or interactive “word tracks” that may guide the claim associate ashe or she uses one or more of the linked applications 112. The workbenchapplication 110 may present the appropriate word tracks, as identifiedby the contextual assistance unit 152, to the claim associate within theuser interface of the workbench application 110 (e.g., within adedicated area of the user interface, and/or appearing in other areas ofthe user interface that are typically used for other purposes, such asthe customer overview area). For example, the contextual assistance unit152 may determine the appropriate/applicable prompts as the claimassociate builds a loss report using the loss reporting tool 114, orotherwise handles a claim using the enterprise claim system 116, etc.The word tracks may include jurisdictional information/documents/tools,such as standard claim processes (SCPs) that are specific to a state'srequirements, for example.

In some embodiments, certain “triggers” may cause applicable topics tobe displayed to the claim associate. If the claim associate moves to apage or screen related to a rental property, for example, a rental SCPmay be displayed to the claim associate. The text displayed bycontextual assistance unit 152 may also depend upon the user or theuser's role (e.g., as specified by role-based rules 154). Text items,prompts, etc., provided by the contextual assistance unit 152 may bestored in business rules 140 and/or elsewhere.

In various embodiments, the contextual assistance unit 152 may alsoprovide other types of information and/or references, such as weatheralerts (e.g., linking to a map with information regarding key areas thathave recently been affected by extreme weather conditions such as hail,high winds, fire, etc.), customizable job aids (e.g., a repair facilitylocator, state-by-state issues relating to policies and/or eventlocation), life event alerts (e.g., recent marriage, death, new child,new driver, etc.), operational and/or claim procedure guides, and so on.In some embodiments, word tracks (e.g., SCPs) presented by thecontextual assistance unit 152 are time-stamped to indicate that theword tracks have been shown to the claim associate.

While multiple claim associates and client devices may, in someembodiments, access the workbench application 110, for clarity FIG. 2illustrates only the example client device 102 of a single claimassociate. As illustrated in FIG. 2, client device 102 may include acentral processing unit (CPU) 160 to execute computer-readableinstructions, a random access memory (RAM) 162 to store the instructionsand data during operation of programs, a data storage 164 that mayinclude persistent memory to store data used by the programs executed byCPU 160, and a program storage 166 that may include persistent memory tostore the programs/instructions executed by CPU 160, including, forexample, a web browser application 170.

By way of example, the data storage 164 and/or the program storage 166may be implemented on a hard disk drive coupled to CPU 160 via a bus(not shown in FIG. 2). More generally, the components 160, 162, 164 and166 may be implemented in any suitable manner according to knowntechniques. Client device 102 may be a personal computer (e.g., adesktop, laptop, notebook, etc.), or any other suitable stationary orportable computing device, such as a tablet, phablet, smart watch, smartglasses, smartphone, or other mobile device, for example. While clientdevice 102 in the example of FIG. 2 may include both storage andprocessing components, client device 102 may instead be a so-called“thin” client that depends upon another computing device for certaincomputing and/or storage functions. For example, data storage 164 and/orprogram storage 166 may be external to client device 102 and connectedto client device 102 via a network link.

Further, client device 102 may be coupled to an input device 172 thatallows the claim associate to enter inputs to client device 102, and anoutput device 174 that allows the claim associate to viewoutputs/displays generated by client device 102. The input device 172may include one or more different devices, such as a pointing device(such as a mouse, a keyboard, a trackball device, a digitizing tabletand/or a microphone, for example). The output device 174 may alsoinclude one or more different devices, such as a display monitor or aset of two or more display monitors, for example. In one embodiment,input device 172 and output device 174 may be integrated as parts of asingle device (e.g., a touch screen device). Using the input device 172and the output device 174, a claim associate may be able to interactwith graphical user interfaces (GUIs) provided by the client device 102.

When CPU 160 executes the web browser application 170, RAM 162 maytemporarily store the instructions and data required for its execution.In FIG. 2, the web browser application 170 being executed is representedin the program space of RAM 162 as web browser application 176. When theclaim associate uses the web browser application 176 to access theworkbench application 110 (i.e., in an embodiment where the workbenchapplication 110 is provided as one or more web pages), for example, theinstructions of the corresponding web page(s) may be stored as a localcopy (not shown in FIG. 2) in RAM 162, and the web browser application176 may interpret the instructions of the local copy. When interpretingthe instructions, the web browser application 176 may present the userinterface of the workbench application 110, including any userinterfaces that are integrated via one or more of the linkedapplications 112, to the claim associate, and may allow the associate tointeract with the presented user interface(s).

In an alternative embodiment, some of the components shown in computingsystem 104 may instead reside in the client device 102. For example,some or all of the workbench application 110, and/or some or all of thelinked applications 112, may reside within program storage 166 afterbeing installed on the client device 102 (e.g., after being downloadedfrom the computing system 104, or after being installed from a portablememory device, etc.). In one such embodiment, the workbench application110 and/or linked applications 112 may communicate with the computingsystem 104 via network 106 to access records 130, business rules 140,and/or other databases of the computing system 104 as needed (e.g., whenperforming a search of internal records using integrated search unit144, when accessing the latest SCPs using contextual assistance unit152, etc.).

IV. Exemplary User Interface Displays

Operation of the components in the environment 100 will now be describedwith reference to the example user interface displays provided in FIGS.3 through 15. The user interface displays in some of FIGS. 3 through 15refer to a “left monitor” and a “right monitor,” which may represent theappearance of two monitor screens (e.g., screens of two monitors ofoutput device 174) when a claim associate has used the web browserapplication 176 to access the workbench application 110, for example.

In some embodiments, however, the precise layout (e.g., sizes and/orposition) of various portions of the user interface displays may bedifferent, and/or may be presented on only a single monitor (or on morethan two monitors). Moreover, the layout may be configurable by theclaim associate (e.g., according to saved presets for the associate,and/or as the associate is working within the workbench application 110)and/or by other individuals (e.g., by information technology staff),and/or may be automatically configured (e.g., based on job function ofthe user, according to role-based rules 154). Additionally, it isunderstood that the information, links, tools and/or functionalityprovided by the user interface displays of FIGS. 3 through 15, and/ordescribed below, may be different in other embodiments and/or scenarios.

When a customer calls the claim associate (e.g., to report an accidentor other loss event and initiate a claim), the workbench application 110may provide a user interface display 200 to the claim associate (e.g.,on the left monitor screen), as shown in the example embodiment of FIG.3. The caller determination unit 146 may access a caller identificationsystem to determine the phone number from which the call was made, andthe workbench application 110 may display that number to the associatein an area 202 of the user interface display 200. The user interfacedisplay 200 may also include guidance for the claim associate, such as amessage 204 prompting the associate to ask the caller certain questions.

The integrated search unit 144 may automatically search policy records132 to identify all policyholders associated with the phone number, andto identify all insurance policies of those policyholders. The workbenchapplication 110 may display the identified policyholder(s) in apolicyholder confirmation area 206 of the user interface display 200,and display the identified policy or policies (e.g., all policieslisting the identified policyholder(s)) in a policy confirmation area208 of the user interface display 200.

In the scenario represented by FIG. 3, two policyholders and threepolicies have been found. As seen in FIG. 3, the workbench application110 may provide check box controls 210A and 210B for the two identifiedpolicyholders, and check box controls 212A through 212C for the threeidentified policies. The claim associate may then ask the caller toconfirm her identity (e.g., her name, if not already provided), and/orto provide enough information to determine the relevant policy.

Once confirmed by the caller, the claim associate may select thecorresponding person and policy from the lists displayed on the userinterface display 200 (in this scenario, “Sofia Smith” and auto policy“12-EL-4135-8”), e.g., by clicking on the appropriate ones of check boxcontrols 210 and 212. In other embodiments, the controls 210 and/or thecontrols 212 may be other suitable types of controls (e.g., radiobuttons, etc.). In some embodiments, the confirmation is not completeuntil the claim associate activates a virtual button (or otheruser-interactive control) 214. If the claim associate does not wish toconfirm any policyholder or policy (e.g., if none of the presentedoptions appears to be correct), the associate may activate a virtualbutton (or other user-interactive control) 216.

Once the claim associate has confirmed the person and policy via theuser interface display 200 (or bypassed confirmation by selecting thevirtual button 216), the workbench application 110 may present the userdisplay arrangement 220 seen in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4. Thedisplay arrangement 220 may include a first user interface display 222(e.g., on the left monitor screen) and a second user interface display224 (e.g., on the right monitor screen). The first user interfacedisplay 222 may provide the claim associate with a customer overview 226containing more detailed information about the caller, and may alsoinclude a contextual assistance area 230 to provide real-time guidanceto the claim associate (as discussed further below). The second userinterface display 224 (only partially shown in FIG. 4) may allow theclaim associate to enter information for a loss report, and may begenerated by loss reporting tool 114, for example.

The customer overview 226 may include an indicator 232 of the identifiedphone number, and indicator 234 of the identified/confirmed person'sname, and an indicator 236 of the identified/confirmed policy number.Moreover, to gather additional information for the customer overview226, the integrated search unit 144 may use the person's name and/orpolicy number to locate other information associated with the person andpolicy (e.g., information included in various databases of records 130and/or information from external sources).

As seen in FIG. 4, for example, the customer overview 226 may alsoinclude an indicator 240 of a property covered by the policy (here, avehicle make, model and year), a list 242 of additional insurancepolicies for the person (e.g., some or all of the other policies thatwere initially returned by the integrated search unit 144 and shown inpolicy confirmation area 208), a list 244 of family members of theperson, a list 246 of recent interactions between the person and theinsurance provider (e.g., within the six months, the last year, the lastfive years, etc.), and/or a list 248 of contact information for theperson (e.g., the identified phone number, an email address, a homeaddress, etc.). The integrated search unit 144 may identify familymembers for the list 244 and contact information for the list 248 bysearching one or more databases in policy records 132, and may retrievethe recent interaction history for the list 246 by searching one or moredatabases in communication log 136, for example. The list 246 of recentinteractions may include expandable-view categories for differentcommunication categories, such as online activity/contacts (e.g., viathe insurance provider's online claim services, etc.), electronicmessages (e.g., emails, text messages, etc.) and phone calls, forexample, and may help the claim associate to more quickly ascertain thereason for the customer's call.

Once the integrated search unit 144 returns the information, theworkbench application 110 may display the information in the customeroverview 226. Moreover, the auto-population unit 148 may use some or allof the information to automatically fill fields associated with one ormore of the linked applications 112 (e.g., name fields, home addressfields, etc.), such as the loss reporting tool 114 and/or the enterpriseclaim system 116. For example, some or all of the information may beused to automatically fill one or more loss reporting fields in thesecond user interface display 224 on the right monitor screen. As a morespecific example, the policy number may be used to select “auto” in aclaim/insurance type field provided by the loss reporting tool 114, thecaller's name may be used to populate an “insured's name” field providedby the loss reporting tool 114, and the vehicle information may be usedto populate one or more “insured's vehicle” fields provided by the lossreporting tool 114.

The contextual assistance unit 152 may provide some or all of theinformation shown in the contextual assistance area 230. The contextualassistance area 230 may include a list 250 of factors/informationrelevant to the procedures that should be followed by the claimassociate during the call, enumerated “word tracks” 252 to help guidethe claim associate in conducting the call and/or entering informationin the user interface for the loss reporting tool 114, one or more linksto additional information (e.g., a link 254 to “SCP Updates”), and/or afield 256 for entering keywords when searching the content of wordtracks (e.g., the content of all available word tracks, including thosenot currently shown in the contextual assistance area 230).

Generally, the content of the word tracks 252 may be dynamicallydetermined by the contextual assistance unit 152 based upon variousfactors, such as the factors in the list 250. For example, the name ofthe caller may be inserted into the guidance at various times (e.g., asdiscussed below in connection with FIG. 5), the type of loss (e.g.,fire/home or auto) and the applicable jurisdiction may be used todetermine which questions the claim associate should be prompted to ask,etc.

The user interface display 260 shown in FIG. 5 (e.g., on the leftmonitor screen) may represent a different embodiment than the userinterface display 220 shown in FIG. 4, or may be a different display towhich the claim associate has navigated. As noted above and seen in FIG.5, word tracks 262 may provide guidance that is customized to theidentified person (e.g., by inserting the customer's name into the wordtracks). Moreover, the workbench application 110 may provide aselectable link 264 to an online claim service (“View Customer's ClaimsPage”) so that the claim associate may review claim details along withthe customer.

As is also seen in FIG. 5, the recent interaction history may furtherinclude an expandable-view “claim history” section 266 which, ifselected by the claim associate, may display claims for the identifiedperson and policy (e.g., within the last year, the last five years,etc.), as well as the status of each such claim (e.g., “open” or“closed”). The claim history information may be information that theintegrated search unit 144 was able to locate in the claims records 134using the identified person and/or policy, for example.

The user interface display 260 may also include a short-cut area 268with links to one or more applications, such as enterprise claim system116 (“ECS”), for example. In other embodiments, the short-cut area 268may include links to more, fewer and/or different applications thanthose shown in FIG. 5. Moreover, the short-cut area 268 may be providedalong with more (e.g., all) of the left monitor screen displays shown inFIGS. 3-15, or may be provided on the right monitor screen displays,etc.

The user interface display 280 shown in FIG. 6 (e.g., on the leftmonitor screen) may represent a different embodiment than one of both ofthe user interface displays 220 and 260 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5,respectively, or may be a different display to which the claim associatehas navigated. As seen in FIG. 6, the workbench application 110 mayincorporate various alerts into the user interface display 280. Ifretrieved information has not been updated in an amount of timespecified by business rules 140 (or if the last contact from thecustomer was at least a threshold amount of time ago, etc.), forexample, business rules 140 may dictate that the workbench application110 display a message 282 prompting the claim associate to verify thatthe contact information for the policyholder is correct.

As another example, if policy records 132 show that the caller's birthmonth and day, or a family member's birth month and day, are the same asthe current month and day, business rules 140 may dictate that theworkbench application 110 display a message 284 indicating as much tothe claim associate. As other examples, business rules 140 may dictatethat the workbench application 110 display messages (not shown in FIG.6) alerting the claim associate to customer life events such as a recentmarriage, death, new child, new driver, etc. As still another example,if the integrated search unit 144 (or other unit implemented by thecomputing system 104) determines that severe weather is at or near thecurrent location of a vehicle of the caller (or the current location ofthe caller, or the location of the home of the caller, etc.), businessrules 140 may dictate that the workbench application 110 displaymessages (not shown in FIG. 6) alerting the claim associate to thesevere weather so that he or she may inform the caller. Moreover, theworkbench application 110 may be integrated with the enterprise claimsystem 116 to generally provide claim alerts to the claim associate viathe user interface.

As is also seen in FIG. 6, the workbench application 110 may provide alink 286 that enables the claim associate to edit the identifiedcaller's information. Moreover, the workbench application 110 mayprovide links 292A through 292C that enable the claim associate to viewadditional coverage information (e.g., coverage types, deductibles,limits, etc.) for any of the policies that the integrated search unit144 had identified for the caller, and that the workbench application110 has displayed in the user interface display 280.

The user interface display 300 shown in FIG. 7 (e.g., on the leftmonitor screen) may represent a different embodiment than some or all ofthe user interface displays 220, 260 and 280 shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6,respectively, or may be a different display to which the claim associatehas navigated. As seen in FIG. 7, the workbench application 110 mayprovide not only a list 302 of open claims and/or a list 304 of closedclaims for the caller, but also links 306 that enable the claimassociate to obtain more detailed information about each claim. Thelinks 306 may be displayed and made available for selection only whenthe claim associate expands the list 302 or the list 304, for example.In the embodiment and scenario of FIG. 7, a first link 306A correspondsto an open auto claim of the caller, and a second link 306B correspondsto an open fire/home claim of the caller.

FIG. 8 shows a portion of a user interface display 310 as it may appear(e.g., on the left monitor screen) when the associate has selected theclaim “12-3D45-678” using link 306A, for example. As seen in FIG. 8, theworkbench application 110 may provide a link 312 to the policyholderclaim page for the selected claim.

During calls with customers, and/or while waiting for a call, a claimassociate may desire to take free-form notes. FIG. 9 shows an exemplarydisplay arrangement 320 in which the workbench application 110communicates with the text editor tool 118 (or in which the text editortool 118 is provided directly by the workbench application 110) toenable the associate to type such notes in a notes area 322 (e.g., onthe left monitor screen). The text recognition unit 150 mayautomatically identify, within the typed text, keywords (e.g.,individual words, and/or phrases with multiple words) that may be ofparticular relevance to the loss report. For example, the textrecognition unit 150 may identify location names (e.g., street addressesor intersections, town names, etc.), names of people, times, dates,descriptions of vehicles (e.g., make, model, year) and/or otherproperties, and so on.

To identify these keywords, the text recognition unit 150 may comparethe words of the text entered by the claim associate to a keyworddatabase, such as a database stored in business rules 140, for example.The keyword database may include a collection of known location names,vehicle makes and models, and so on. Alternatively, or in addition, thetext recognition unit 150 may pass the words of the entered text to theintegrated search unit 144, which may search internal databases of theinsurance provider (e.g., one or more databases storing records 130) todetermine whether one or more of those words correspond to informationin the insurance provider's records.

The workbench application 110 may provide various categories ofinformation to guide the claim associate's note-taking, such as a firstcategory 324A (“What happened”), a second category 324B (“When”) and athird category 324C (“Parties involved”), for example. The categories324 displayed by the workbench application 110 may depend on a notestemplate selected by the claim associate (e.g., in FIG. 9, the “LossReport” template) using a template selector 326.

Moreover, the text recognition unit 150 may make use of the categories324 in which notes are entered to help determine whether a term orphrase relates to a type of event, a location or a person. For example,the text recognition unit 150 may recognize the word “Ford” as a vehiclemake if it is entered under the “What happened” category 324A, butinstead recognize “Ford” as a person's name if it is entered under the“Parties involved” category 324C. In other embodiments, the textrecognition unit 150 may not take the categories 324 into account whenprocessing the text of the notes, and/or the notes area 322 may notprovide any note categories.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary display arrangement 330, which may correspondto a scenario in which the claim associate has types or otherwiseentered various notes 334 (e.g., in the notes area 322 of FIG. 9) basedupon a call with the customer Sofia Smith. In this example scenario, thenotes 334 may include a brief description of the location (intersection,town, state) where the accident occurred in a “What happened” category,the date of the accident in a “When” category, and/or the name of aparty involved in the accident in a “Parties involved” category. Thetext recognition unit 150 may recognize that a location, date and namehave been entered, and automatically provide the location, date and/orname to the auto-population unit 148. The auto-population unit 148 maythen use the location, date and/or name to automatically populatecorresponding fields in the user interface display(s) provided by lossreporting tool 114 and/or other of the linked applications 112.

As seen in the (partially shown) right monitor screen in FIG. 10, forexample, the auto-population unit 148 has used the date “February 10,2014” within the notes 334 to populate the “Date of Loss” field 332 inthe user interface display of the loss reporting tool 114. In otherembodiments and/or scenarios, the auto-population unit 148 may convertthe format of certain types of information before populating fields(e.g., converting “2/10/14” in the notes 334 to “Feb 10, 2014” in theloss report field 332, etc.).

As noted above, the workbench application 110 may also provideintegrated search capabilities. As seen in FIG. 11, for example, a userinterface display 340 (e.g., shown on the left monitor screen) mayprovide user-interactive controls 342, any one of which the claimassociate may activate in order to select a desired search mode that isto be utilized by the integrated search tool 144.

The applied search mode may dictate which database(s)/sources aresearched by the integrated search tool 144, and/or the manner in whichsearch results are provided. For example, the claim associate mayactivate (e.g., click on) control 342A to select the “Policy and People”search mode (e.g., to cause the integrated search unit 144 to searchpolicy records 132 and/or an enterprise customer information system),control 342B to select the “Services” search mode (e.g., to cause theintegrated search unit 144 to use an external search engine for findingservice providers such as auto repair shops), or control 342C to selectthe “Web and Maps” search mode (e.g., to cause the integrated searchunit 144 to use an external search engine or mapping service for findinglocation information and/or viewing maps). A search field 344 may allowthe claim associate to enter terms/keywords that are to be searchedaccording to the selected search mode (e.g., by searching the sourcesassociated with the selected search mode).

The user interface display 340 of FIG. 11 corresponds to a scenario inwhich the integrated search tool 144 has provided a results list 346 fora “Policy and People” search of the terms “Linda Johnson 60605.” Theresults list 346 may first appear when the claim associate enters “LindaJohnson 60605” in the search bar at the top of the screen and pressesthe return key (e.g., in an effort to learn more about the otherparticipant in the accident, as identified by the caller), or when theclaim associate activates the control 342A (after already entering thesearch terms), for example. Alternatively, if the text recognition unit150 recognized Linda Johnson as a name in the notes typed by the claimassociate (e.g., in notes 334 of FIG. 10), the results list 346 andsearch mode controls 342 shown in FIG. 11 may automatically appear whenthe claim associate clicks on or otherwise selects the name “LindaJohnson” in the notes, or when the associate selects the “Policy andPeople” search mode using control 342A, etc.

As seen in FIG. 11, for the “Policy and People” search mode, the resultslist 346 returned by the integrated search unit 144 may include a numberof entries 348 each corresponding to a different people/policy pair.Thus, for example, different ones of entries 348 may include differentpeople with different policies, and/or multiple entries for the sameperson but corresponding to different policies. The workbenchapplication 110 may also provide controls that enable the claimassociate to take particular actions for a particular search result. Forexample, the claim associate may be provided with interactive controls350 each corresponding to a different one of the entries 348.

Each of the controls 350 may enable the claim associate to specify therelationship between the person who is listed in the corresponding entryand the loss event being reported. For example, the control 350A mayenable the claim associate to specify whether the person listed in entry348A was a driver in the accident, a participant in the accident, areporting party for the accident, and/or listed on the policy underwhich a claim is being reported. If the claim associate selects one ormore of the presented options (and possibly activates a virtual “Add”button or other control, as shown in FIG. 11), the auto-population unit148 may automatically populate the appropriate field(s) of the userinterface display provided by the loss reporting tool 114 (e.g., fieldsshown in the right monitor screen), and/or fields of one or more otherof the linked applications 112.

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary user interface display 360 provided to theclaim associate (e.g., on the left monitor screen) after the integratedsearch tool 144 has returned a results list 362 for a search of theterms “Benton and Eastern Intersection Joliet, IL.” using the “Web andMaps” search mode. The results list 362 may appear when the claimassociate has entered the search terms in the search field and selectedthe “Webs and Maps” search mode using the control 342C, for example.Alternatively, if the text recognition unit 150 recognized theintersection, town and/or state as location information in the notestyped by the claim associate (e.g., within notes 334 of FIG. 10), theresults list 362 may automatically appear when the associate clicks onor otherwise selects the intersection, town and/or state in the notes,or when the associate selects the “Web and Maps” search mode usingcontrol 342C, etc.

As seen in FIG. 12, for the “Web and Maps” search mode, the results list362 returned by the integrated search unit 144 may include a map display364 showing the location entered in the search field, and/or links 366to one or more web sites providing additional information about one ormore aspects of the location (e.g., information about the town). Theworkbench application 110 may generate the map display 364 by linking toa third party web-based mapping service/application, and/or may enablethe claim associate to expand or change the zoom level of the mapdisplay 364 by clicking on the map, for example.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary user interface display 370, showing the userinterface for the loss reporting tool 114 as provided to the claimassociate within the user interface of the workbench application 110(e.g., on the right monitor screen). The user interface display 370 maycorrespond to the loss reporting user interface display at a time afterthe claim associate has entered the intersection, town and state in thenotes area (e.g., notes area 322 of FIG. 9), the text recognition unit150 has recognized/categorized the intersection, town and state aslocation information, and/or the auto-population unit 148 has used thatinformation to populate the appropriate fields of the loss reportingtool 114.

As seen in FIG. 13, the loss reporting tool 114 may provide its owninterface to a mapping service, thereby generated a map display 372. Theclaim associate may enter additional information relating to theloss/event location, and/or change automatically-populated information,as needed directly from the user interface display 370 (e.g., byentering notes in the “Location notes” field, by changing to the “Setup”tab and editing field contents provided therein, etc.).

As is also seen in FIG. 13, a component of the workbench application 110that is in communication with the loss reporting tool 114, or the lossreporting tool 114 itself, may also display metrics (e.g., percentages)indicating whether, and/or how much of, each type of information neededfor the loss report has been entered. In this scenario, for example,100% of the event participant information (“Who”), the time information(“When”) and the location information (“Where”) has been automaticallyentered (e.g., by the auto-population unit 148) and/or manually entered(e.g., by the claim associate), whereas only 20% of the informationneeded to describe the event (“What,” e.g., the type of accident, etc.)has been entered.

Moreover, the workbench application 110 or the loss reporting tool 114may apply an algorithm to determine an overall completion metric fordisplay. In this scenario, for example, the “Who,” “What,” “When” and“Where” percentages are used to determine that 60% of the loss report asa whole has been completed. In some embodiments, similar metrics mayalso be shown for other information to be entered for the loss report,and/or for other tasks to be performed by the associate (e.g., claimadvancing activities).

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary user interface display 380 that may bepresented to the claim associate (e.g., on the left monitor screen)after the integrated search tool 144 has provided a result list 382 fora “Services” search. The results list 382 may appear when the claimassociate has entered the caller's home address in the search field andselected the “Services” search mode using control 342B, for example. Asseen in FIG. 14, if the “Services” search mode is used to search thehome address of the caller, the results list 382 may include a list ofentries 386 corresponding to service providers in the vicinity of thecaller's home (e.g., provider name, provider address, distance ofprovider from the caller's home, etc.).

The workbench application 110 may also provide a filter control 384 thatenables the claim associate to search for only a particular type ofservice provider. As seen in the example user interface display 390 ofFIG. 15, for example, the claim associate may select one or more optionsprovided by a control 392 to restrict the search results to only rentalcar companies, only repair facilities, only estimate companies, onlysalvage vendors (auto), only salvage vendors (boat), only defenseattorneys, and so on.

Returning to FIG. 14, the workbench application 110 may also providecontrols 388 that enable the claim associate to take particular actionsfor any given one of the search results/entries 386. For example, theclaim associate may utilize the control 388A to add the servicesprovider of entry 386A to an appropriate field of the claim record, orcontrol 388B to add the services provider of entry 386B to anappropriate field of the claim record, etc.

As can be seen from the above discussion, the components in theenvironment 100, when using the above techniques, may drasticallyshorten the time required for a claim associate to complete a lossreport and/or perform other claim-related activities. As such, theresource usage or consumption of the components in the environment 100(e.g., in the computing system 104 and/or the client device 102) duringthe loss reporting process (or other claim-related process) may begreatly reduced. For example, the claim associate may need to locate andlaunch fewer applications, may need to make fewer duplicative entriesand/or may need to initiate fewer independent searches, thereby causingthe number of processor cycles utilized by the computing system 104and/or the client device 102 to be greatly reduced. The number ofqueries to different databases may also be reduced, thereby reducing thenumber of network messages and/or increasing network efficiency.

V. Exemplary Process Flow for Facilitating Call Handling Using AutomatedCaller Identification

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method 400 forfacilitating the handling, by a user of a computing device having one ormore display screens (e.g., one or more computer monitors), of a callfrom an insurance customer regarding a loss event, according to anembodiment. The method 400 may be implemented by a computing system(e.g., by one or more processors within a computing system), which mayinclude the computing system 104 and/or the client device 102 of FIG. 2,for example.

In the example method 400, a caller identification system may beaccessed to determine a phone number associated with a call from aninsurance customer (block 402). With reference to FIG. 2, for example,one or more servers of the computing system 104 may interface with theinsurance provider's telephone system, which may utilize a calleridentification feature offered by the telephone service provider.

The phone number may be used to automatically retrieve customerinformation associated with the insurance customer from one or moredatabases of the insurance provider (block 404). With reference to FIG.2, for example, one or more servers of the computing system 104 (e.g.,the server(s) implementing block 402) may access one or more internaldatabases to locate customer information that is associated, in theinsurance provider's records, with the caller's phone number. Theretrieved customer information may include a name of the insurancecustomer, a policy number of an insurance policy of the customer, and/orother information relating to the customer/caller (e.g., claim historyinformation regarding one or more claims associated with the customer,communication history information regarding one or more pastcommunications involving the customer, family information regarding oneor more family members of the customer, additional policy informationregarding one or more other insurance policies of the customer, etc.).

The customer information may be retrieved from a single database, orfrom multiple databases. For example, a first portion of the customerinformation may be retrieved from a first database associated with afirst insurance line (e.g., auto insurance), and a second portion of thecustomer information may be retrieved from a second database associatedwith a second insurance line (e.g., fire/home insurance).

A customer overview that includes the retrieved name, the retrievedpolicy number, and/or other retrieved customer information (e.g., claimhistory information, communication history information, familyinformation, additional policy information, etc.) may be displayed tothe user on the one or more display screens of the computing device(block 406). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, the client device102 may display the retrieved customer information to the user of clientdevice 102 (e.g., a claim associate) on output device 174.

In some embodiments, portions of the customer overview may be displayedto the user in response to the user opting to view that information(e.g., by clicking on a “+” symbol to expand a section of the customeroverview, as for the claim history information seen in the exampledisplay 300 of FIG. 7). Moreover, the customer overview may be displayedin response to the user's computing device detecting a userconfirmation. For example, block 406 may include displaying (on thedisplay screen(s)) a request for user confirmation of the name and/orpolicy number (e.g., a “yes/no” confirmation of a single name and policynumber, or a user selection from among a plurality of candidate namesand policy numbers), and detecting the user's confirmation, prior todisplaying the customer overview. Alternatively, the customer overviewmay be displayed without any user confirmation.

The customer overview may also provide, to the user, links to additionalinformation, including information that was not necessarily retrieved atblock 404. For example, the customer overview may include auser-selectable link to additional claim information for one or moreclaims associated with the insurance customer (e.g., similar to link306A or 306B in FIG. 7), a user-selectable link to a user interface thatenables modification of records data associated with the insurancecustomer (e.g., similar to link 286 in FIG. 6), and so on.

The method 400 may also include one or more blocks not shown in FIG. 16.For example, the method 400 may include an additional block in which atleast a portion of the customer information retrieved at block 404 isused to automatically populate one or more fields that are provided by aloss reporting tool and displayed on the one or more display screens. Asanother example, if a name of a family member of the caller is retrievedat block 404, the customer overview displayed at block 406 may furtherinclude a user-interactive control that enables the user to select fromvarious different relationships to the loss event. The method 400 maythen include additional blocks in which the computing device detects auser selection, made via the user-interactive control, of a particularrelationship from among the various different relationships, and inwhich information about the family member is used, along with theselected relationship, to automatically populate one or more fields thatare provided by a loss reporting tool and displayed on the displayscreen(s).

VI. Exemplary Process Flow for Facilitating Call Handling Using KeywordRecognition

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram of another exemplary method 420 forfacilitating handling, by a user of a computing device having one ormore display screens (e.g., one or more computer monitors), of a callfrom an insurance customer regarding a loss event, according to anembodiment. The method 420 may be implemented by a computing system(e.g., by one or more processors within a computing system), which mayinclude the computing system 104 and/or the client device 102 of FIG. 2,for example.

In the exemplary method 420, one or more notes fields in which the usermay enter text are presented to the user via the display screen(s)(block 422). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, the client device102 may present the notes field(s) to the user of client device 102(e.g., a claim associate) on output device 174. In some embodiments, thenotes field(s) may be presented along with other fields and/or displays.For example, a loss report user interface display showing at least oneloss reporting field may be presented to the user (e.g. on a monitorscreen different than a monitor screen showing the notes field(s)).

Text that the user entered in at least one of the one or more notesfields may be received via an input device (e.g., by the client device102 of FIG. 2 via input device 172) (block 424). In some embodiments,other information may also be received. For example, the notes fieldsmay include different note fields for different categories (e.g.,“When,” “Where,” “What,” “Who”), and an indication of the field/categoryin which the notes were entered may be received at block 424 in additionto the text.

The received text may be analyzed to identify one or more keywordshaving potential relevance to the loss event (block 426). With referenceto FIG. 2, for example, one or more processors in a server of thecomputing system 104, or in the user's computing device (e.g., clientdevice 102), may process the received text to identify the keyword(s).To provide just a few examples, the keyword(s) may include or describe alocation (e.g., a street address or a street intersection), a timeand/or date, a person's name, a make, model and/or year of a vehicle,and so on.

In some embodiments, the keyword(s) may be identified by comparing thereceived text to keywords stored in a keyword database (e.g., a keyworddatabase stored at the user's computing device, or at a server remotefrom the user's computing device). Additionally, or alternatively,processing relating to the context in which various terms are used maybe used to help identify keywords and/or the meaning of keywords. Asjust one example, sentence structure may be analyzed, in conjunctionwith the manner a term is used within that structure, to predict whetherthe term is a person's name or a name of a location (e.g., such that,for “X was in an accident on Belmont Ave,” X is predicted to be aperson's name, whereas for “Joe was in an accident on X,” X is predictedto be a location name).

If an indication of a notes field/category was received at block 424,the received text may be analyzed according to rules corresponding tothat specific notes field/category. For example, it may be determinedthat “June” is a person's name if the user had entered that text in a“Who” field, or a month if the user had entered that text in a “When”field. As another example, it may be determined that “Ford” is aperson's name if the user had entered that text in a “Who” field, or avehicle make if the user had entered that text in a “What” field.

The identified keyword(s) may be used to cause loss report informationto be automatically added to one or more loss reporting fields providedby a loss reporting tool (e.g., loss reporting tool 114 of FIG. 2)(block 428). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, one or moreprocessors in a server of the computing system 104, or in the user'scomputing device (e.g., client device 102), may cause the appropriateloss reporting field(s) to be populated accordingly. If a loss reportuser interface display is being presented to the user (e.g., asdiscussed above in connection with block 422), the loss reportinformation may be shown/displayed within the corresponding fields ofthe loss report user interface display. Alternatively, the loss reportinformation may be assigned to the appropriate loss report field(s), butnot displayed to the user.

To provide just a few more specific examples, a time and/or date may beused to automatically populate one or more fields describing when theloss occurred (e.g., the “Date of Loss” and/or “Time of Loss” field(s)of FIGS. 9 and 10), a street address or intersection may be used toautomatically populate a loss location field of the loss reporting tool,a vehicle make, model and/or year may be used to automatically populatea vehicle description field of the loss reporting tool, a person's namemay be used to automatically populate an involved person field of theloss reporting tool, and so on. The keyword(s) may be transferreddirectly to the appropriate field(s), or may be entered in the field(s)in a modified format (e.g., changing “6/10/14” to “June 10, 2014,”etc.).

The loss report information may be caused to be stored in a claimsdatabase as a part of a loss report record associated with the lossevent (block 430). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, the clientdevice 102 may cause the loss report information to be stored in theclaims database by sending a remote server (e.g., a server of computingsystem 104) the loss report information and/or an indication that theuser has activated a user-interactive submit control (e.g., a virtualsubmit button) provided on the display screen(s).

VII. Exemplary Process Flow for Facilitating Call Handling Using anImproved Search Tool

FIG. 18 depicts a flow diagram of yet another exemplary method 440 forfacilitating handling, by a user of a computing device having one ormore display screens, of a call from an insurance customer regarding aloss event, according to an embodiment. The method 440 may beimplemented by a computing system (e.g., by one or more processorswithin a computing system), which may include the computing system 104and/or the client device 102 of FIG. 2, for example.

In the example method 440, an interactive search display having a searchfield for entering search terms is provided via the display screen(s)(block 442). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, the client device102 may provide the interactive search display to the user of clientdevice 102 (e.g., a claim associate) on output device 174. Theinteractive search display may include one or more user-interactive modecontrols for selecting a search mode from among multiple search modes.The different search modes may enable the user to search differentsources and/or databases (e.g., an Internet search versus an internaldatabase search), and/or may offer different features to the user (e.g.,providing controls for filtering/restricting results according tocriteria selected from a predetermined criteria list).

In some embodiments, the display screen(s) also present otherinformation and/or user interfaces. For example, a loss report userinterface display showing at least one loss reporting field may bepresented to the user (e.g. on a monitor screen different than a monitorscreen showing the interactive search display).

A set of one or more search terms, entered in the search field by theuser, may be used to perform a search of one or more databases thatcollectively store policy information for a plurality of insurancepolicies (block 444). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, one or moreservers within computing system 104 may perform a search of one or moredatabases (e.g., an auto insurance policy database and a fire/homeinsurance policy database both included in policy records 132). If asearch mode was selected (by default or otherwise), the search of thedatabase(s) may be in accordance with that search mode (e.g., the“People and Policy” search mode corresponding to the control 342A inFIG. 11).

A set of results, corresponding to information returned by the search ofthe database(s), and an interactive control may be presented to the uservia the display screen(s) (e.g., by the client device 102 of FIG. 2 viaoutput device 174) (block 446). The set of results may include one ormore entries for one or more respective people, each of the people beingassociated with one or more of the insurance policies stored in thedatabase(s). Each entry may include information such as a person's name,policy number, date of birth, home address, etc.

The interactive control may enable the user to specify a relationshipbetween a particular person (corresponding to a particular entry) andthe loss event. For example, the interactive control may enable the userto specify that the person in a particular entry is a reporting party, apolicyholder, a driver in the loss event, and/or a participant in theloss event. The control may be similar to control 350A in FIG. 11, forexample, or may have a different form and/or a different set of options.The control may enable selection of multiple relationships for a singleperson/entry, or may restrict the user to selecting only onerelationship per person/entry. In various different embodiments, adifferent interactive control may be presented for each person/entry inthe set of results, or a single interactive control may be used toindicate a relationship between the loss event and a person that hasbeen selected by the user (e.g., by clicking on a check box or radiobutton next to the person's entry, etc.).

After the user specifies a particular relationship via the interactivecontrol, information associated with the first person (e.g., informationretrieved from policy records 132, claims records 134 and/orcommunication log 136) may be used in conjunction with the specifiedrelationship to cause loss report information to be automatically addedto one or more loss reporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool(e.g., loss reporting tool 114 of FIG. 2) (block 448). If the userindicated (via the interactive control) that “Linda Johnson” was aparticipant in the loss event, for example, an “Involved Person” fieldof the loss reporting tool may be populated with that name, and/or afield indicating a number of claimants may be incremented by one, etc.

With reference to FIG. 2, one or more processors in a server of thecomputing system 104, or in the user's computing device (e.g., clientdevice 102), may cause the appropriate loss reporting field(s) to bepopulated. If a loss report user interface display is being presented tothe user (e.g., as discussed above in connection with block 442), theloss report information may be shown/displayed within the correspondingfields of the loss report user interface display. Alternatively, theloss report information may be assigned to the appropriate loss reportfield(s), but not displayed to the user.

The loss report information may be caused to be stored in a claimsdatabase as a part of a loss report record associated with the lossevent (block 450). With reference to FIG. 2, for example, the clientdevice 102 may cause the loss report information to be stored in theclaims database by sending a remote server (e.g., a server of computingsystem 104) the loss report information and/or an indication that theuser has activated a user-interactive submit control (e.g., a virtualsubmit button) provided on the display screen(s).

The method 440 may also include one or more blocks not shown in FIG. 18.For example, the method 440 may include an additional block in which aselection of a different search mode, made by the user via the modecontrol(s), is detected (e.g., the “Webs and Maps” or “Services” searchmode corresponding to the control 342B or 342C, respectively, in FIG.11). A remote server may then be caused to perform a search using anadditional set of one or more search terms and a third party, web-basedsearch engine (e.g., by sending a search request to the remote server).An additional set of results corresponding to information returned bythe third party search may then be presented to the user via the displayscreen(s), for example.

The different search mode may also provide other search features. If thesearch mode is a “Services” search mode, for example, the interactivesearch display may provide a filter control for restricting displayedsearch results to one or more particular types of services (e.g.,salvage vendors, body shops, etc.).

VIII. Exemplary Computer System for the Provision, Operation and/or Useof an Integrated Tool for Improved Workflow Efficiency

FIG. 19 depicts an exemplary computer system 600 in which the any of thetechniques described herein may be implemented, according to oneembodiment. The computer system 600 of FIG. 19 may include a computingdevice in the form of a computer 610. Components of the computer 610 mayinclude, but are not limited to, a processing unit 620, a system memory630, and/or a system bus 621 that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory 630 to the processing unit 620.

The system bus 621 may be any of several types of bus structuresincluding a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, or alocal bus, and may use any suitable bus architecture. By way of example,and not limitation, such architectures include the Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, EnhancedISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) localbus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus (also known asMezzanine bus).

Computer 610 typically may include a variety of computer-readable media.Computer-readable media may be any available media that can be accessedby computer 610 and may include both volatile and nonvolatile media, andboth removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage mediaand communication media.

Computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removableand non-removable media implemented in any method or technology forstorage of information such as computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media mayinclude, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, FLASH memory or othermemory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or otheroptical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can accessed bycomputer 610.

Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includesany information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed insuch a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example,and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as awired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such asacoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared and other wireless media.Combinations of any of the above are also included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

The system memory 630 may include computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 631and random access memory (RAM) 632. A basic input/output system 633(BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within computer 610, such as during start-up, may betypically stored in ROM 631. RAM 632 typically contains data and/orprogram modules that are immediately accessible to, and/or presentlybeing operated on, by processing unit 620. By way of example, and notlimitation, FIG. 19 illustrates operating system 634, applicationprograms 635, other program modules 636, and program data 637.

The computer 610 may also include other removable/non-removable,volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 19 illustrates a hard disk drive 641 that reads from or writes tonon-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 651that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 652,and an optical disk drive 655 that reads from or writes to a removable,nonvolatile optical disk 656 such as a CD ROM or other optical media.Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storagemedia that can be used in the exemplary operating environment mayinclude, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memorycards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM,solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 641 may be connectedto the system bus 621 through a non-removable memory interface such asinterface 640, and magnetic disk drive 651 and optical disk drive 655may be connected to the system bus 621 by a removable memory interface,such as interface 650.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 19 provide storage of computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputer 610. In FIG. 19, for example, hard disk drive 641 isillustrated as storing operating system 644, application programs 645,other program modules 646, and program data 647. Note that thesecomponents may either be the same as or different from operating system634, application programs 635, other program modules 636, and programdata 637. Operating system 644, application programs 645, other programmodules 646, and program data 647 are given different numbers here toillustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.

A user may enter commands and information into the computer 610 throughinput devices, such as cursor control device 661 (e.g., a mouse,trackball, touch pad, etc.) and keyboard 662. A monitor 691 or othertype of display device is also connected to the system bus 621 via aninterface, such as a video interface 690. In addition to the monitor,computers may also include other peripheral output devices such asprinter 696, which may be connected through an output peripheralinterface 695.

The computer 610 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer680. The remote computer 680 may be a personal computer, a server, arouter, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, andtypically may include many or all of the elements described aboverelative to the computer 610, although only a memory storage device 681has been illustrated in FIG. 19. The logical connections depicted inFIG. 19 include a local area network (LAN) 671 and a wide area network(WAN) 673, but may also include other networks. Such networkingenvironments are commonplace in hospitals, offices, enterprise-widecomputer networks, intranets and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 610 is connectedto the LAN 671 through a network interface or adapter 670. When used ina WAN networking environment, the computer 610 typically includes amodem 672 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN673, such as the Internet. The modem 672, which may be internal orexternal, may be connected to the system bus 621 via the input interface660, or other appropriate mechanism. The communications connections 670,672, which allow the device to communicate with other devices, are anexample of communication media, as discussed above. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 610, orportions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device 681.By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 19 illustrates remoteapplication programs 685 as residing on memory device 681.

The techniques for the provision, operation and/or use of an integratedtool for improved workflow efficiency described above may be implementedin part or in their entirety within a computer system such as thecomputer system 600 illustrated in FIG. 19. The computer 610 may be acomputing device of a claim associate (e.g., client device 102 of FIG.2), and the remote computer 680 may be a server of an insurance provider(e.g., within the computing system 104 of FIG. 2), for example. In somesuch embodiments, the LAN 671 or WAN 673 may be omitted (e.g.,communications may between computer 610 and computer 680 may only occurvia WAN 673, or only via LAN 671). Application programs 645 may includea web browser application such as web browser application 170 of FIG. 2,for example. In operation, the claim associate may use computer 610 toaccess a workbench application (e.g., similar to the workbenchapplication 12 of FIG. 1 and/or the workbench application 110 of FIG. 2)stored at computer 680 and/or at computer 610, and the associate mayview the user interface(s) of the workbench application via monitor 691(and possibly one or more additional monitors similar to monitor 691),and may provide inputs via keyboard 662 and/or mouse 661, for example.

VII. Exemplary Method Embodiments

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for facilitating handling,by a user of a computing device having one or more display screens, of acall from an insurance customer regarding a loss event may include (1)accessing, by one or more servers, a caller identification system todetermine a phone number associated with the call from the insurancecustomer. The method may also include (2) automatically retrieving, bythe one or more servers and using the determined phone number, customerinformation associated with the insurance customer from one or moredatabases of an insurance provider, the customer information including(i) a name of the insurance customer and/or (ii) a policy number of aninsurance policy of the insurance customer. The method may also include(3) displaying, to the user on the one or more display screens, acustomer overview including (i) the retrieved name and/or (ii) theretrieved policy number. The method may include additional, fewer oralternative actions, such as any of those discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, displaying the customer overview may include displaying,on the one or more display screens, a request for user confirmation ofone or both of (i) the retrieved name, and (ii) the retrieved policynumber, detecting, at the computing device, confirmation by the user ofone or both of (i) the retrieved name, and (ii) the retrieved policynumber, and in response to detecting the confirmation by the user,displaying the customer overview on the one or more display screens.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may include using at least aportion of the retrieved customer information to automatically populateone or more fields that are provided by a loss reporting tool anddisplayed on the one or more display screens.

Additionally or alternatively, automatically retrieving customerinformation associated with the insurance customer may includeautomatically retrieving (i) the name of the insurance customer, (ii)the policy number of an insurance policy of the insurance customer,and/or (iii) claim history information regarding one or more claimsassociated with the insurance customer, and/or displaying a customeroverview may include displaying a customer overview including (i) theretrieved name, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at leasta portion of the retrieved claim history information.

Additionally or alternatively, automatically retrieving customerinformation associated with the insurance customer may includeautomatically retrieving (i) the name of the insurance customer, (ii)the policy number of an insurance policy of the insurance customer,and/or (iii) communication history information regarding one or morepast communications involving the insurance customer, and/or displayinga customer overview may include displaying a customer overview including(i) the retrieved name, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii)at least a portion of the retrieved communication history information.

Additionally or alternatively, automatically retrieving customerinformation associated with the insurance customer may includeautomatically retrieving (i) the name of the insurance customer, (ii)the policy number of an insurance policy of the insurance customer,and/or (iii) family information regarding one or more family members ofthe insurance customer, and/or displaying a customer overview mayinclude displaying a customer overview including (i) the retrieved name,(ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at least a portion of theretrieved family information.

Additionally or alternatively, displaying a customer overview mayinclude displaying a customer overview including (i) a name of a firstfamily member, and/or (ii) a user-interactive control that enables theuser to select from a plurality of relationships to the loss event. Themethod may further include detecting, by the computing device, a userselection via the user-interactive control of a particular relationshipfrom among the plurality of relationships, and using (i) informationabout the first family member, and/or (ii) the particular relationship,to automatically populate one or more fields that are provided by a lossreporting tool and displayed on the one or more display screens.

Additionally or alternatively, automatically retrieving customerinformation associated with the insurance customer may includeautomatically retrieving (i) the name of the insurance customer, (ii)the policy number of an insurance policy of the insurance customer,and/or (iii) additional policy information regarding one or more otherinsurance policies of the insurance customer, and/or displaying acustomer overview may include displaying a customer overview including(i) the retrieved name, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii)at least a portion of the retrieved additional policy information.

Additionally or alternatively, displaying the customer overview mayfurther include providing, on the one or more display screens, auser-selectable link to additional claim information for one or moreclaims associated with the insurance customer.

Additionally or alternatively, displaying the customer overview mayfurther include providing, on the one or more display screens, auser-selectable link to a user interface that enables modification ofrecords data associated with the insurance customer.

Additionally or alternatively, automatically retrieving customerinformation associated with the insurance customer may includeautomatically retrieving (i) a first portion of the customer informationfrom a first database associated with a first insurance line, and/or(ii) a second portion of the customer information from a second databaseassociated with a second insurance line.

In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for facilitatinghandling, by a user of a computing device having one or more displayscreens and an input device, of a call from an insurance customerregarding a loss event may include (1) presenting to the user, by thecomputing device and via the one or more display screens, one or morenotes fields in which text may be entered by the user; (2) receiving, bythe computing device and via the input device, text that the userentered in at least one of the one or more notes fields; (3) analyzing,by one or more processors, the received text to identify one or morekeywords having potential relevance to the loss event; (4) causing, bythe one or more processors and using the identified one or morekeywords, loss report information to be automatically added to one ormore loss reporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool; and/or (5)causing, by the computing device, the loss report information to bestored in a claims database as a part of a loss report record associatedwith the loss event. The method may include additional, fewer oralternative actions, such as any of those discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, analyzing the received text to identify one or morekeywords may include analyzing the received text to identify one or morewords describing a location, and causing loss report information to beautomatically added to one or more loss reporting fields may includecausing a description of the location to be added to a loss locationfield provided by the loss reporting tool.

Additionally or alternatively, analyzing the received text to identifyone or more keywords may include analyzing the received text to identifya name of a person, and/or causing loss report information to beautomatically added to one or more loss reporting fields may includecausing the name to be added to an involved person field provided by theloss reporting tool.

Additionally or alternatively, analyzing the received text to identifyone or more keywords may include analyzing the received text to identifya one or more of (i) a make of a vehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle,and/or (iii) a year of the vehicle, and/or causing loss reportinformation to be automatically added to one or more loss reportingfields may include causing one or more of (i) the make of the vehicle,(ii) the model of the vehicle, and/or (iii) the year of the vehicle tobe added to one or more involved vehicle fields provided by the lossreporting tool.

Additionally or alternatively, analyzing the received text to identifyone or more keywords may include comparing the received text to aplurality of keywords stored in a keyword database.

Additionally or alternatively, receiving text that the user entered inthe at least one notes field further may include receiving an indicationof a first notes category, among a plurality of notes categories, inwhich the text was entered, and/or analyzing the received text toidentify one or more keywords may include analyzing the received textaccording to rules corresponding to the first notes category.

Additionally or alternatively, causing the loss report information to bestored in the claims database may be in response to the user submittingthe loss report via a user-interactive submit control presented on theone or more display screens, and/or may include sending the loss reportinformation to a server remote from the computing device.

Additionally or alternatively, one or both of (i) analyzing the receivedtext to identify the one or more keywords, and (ii) causing the lossreport information to be automatically added to the one or more lossreporting fields, may be by one or more processors of the computingdevice, or by one or more processors of one or more servers that areremote from the computing device.

Additionally or alternatively, presenting the one or more notes fieldsmay further include presenting to the user, via the one or more displayscreens, a loss report user interface display showing at least one ofthe one or more loss reporting fields, and/or causing the loss reportinformation to be automatically added to the one or more loss reportingfields may include causing the loss report user interface display toshow the loss report information in the at least one of the one or moreloss reporting fields.

In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for facilitatinghandling, by a user of a computing device having one or more displayscreens, of a call from an insurance customer regarding a loss event mayinclude (1) providing, by the computing device and via the one or moredisplay screens, an interactive search display having a search field forentering search terms; (2) performing, by one or more servers and usinga set of one or more search terms entered in the search field by theuser, a search of one or more databases that collectively store policyinformation for a plurality of insurance policies; (3) presenting to theuser, by the computing device and via the one or more display screens,(i) a set of results corresponding to information returned by the searchof the one or more databases, the set of results including an entry fora first person associated with at least one of the plurality ofinsurance policies, and/or (ii) an interactive control that enables theuser to specify a relationship between the first person and the lossevent; (4) causing, by one or more processors and using (i) a particularrelationship, specified by the user via the interactive control, betweenthe first person and the loss event, and/or (ii) information associatedwith the first person, loss report information to be automatically addedto one or more loss reporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool;and/or (5) causing, by the computing device, the loss report informationto be stored in a claims database as a part of a loss report recordassociated with the loss event. The method may include additional, feweror alternative actions, such as any of those discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, providing an interactive search display may includeproviding an interactive search display having one or moreuser-interactive mode controls for selecting a search mode from among aplurality of search modes. The method may further comprise, prior toperforming the search of the one or more databases, detecting aselection, made by the user via the one or more user-interactive modecontrols, of a first search mode of the plurality of search modes.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may further comprise (a)detecting a selection, made by the user via the one or moreuser-interactive mode controls, of a second search mode of the pluralityof search modes; (b) causing, by the one or more processors and using anadditional set of one or more search terms entered in the search fieldby the user, a remote server to perform a search using a third party,web-based search engine; and/or (c) presenting to the user, by thecomputing device and via the one or more display screens, an additionalset of results corresponding to information returned by the search usingthe third party, web-based search engine.

Additionally or alternatively, detecting a selection of a second searchmode of the plurality of search modes may include detecting a selectionof a services search, and/or providing an interactive search displayhaving one or more user-interactive mode controls for selecting a searchmode may further include providing an interactive search display havinga filter control for restricting displayed search results to one or moreparticular types of services.

Additionally or alternatively, performing a search of one or moredatabases may include performing a search of a first database storingauto insurance policy information and/or a second database storing homeinsurance policy information.

Additionally or alternatively, presenting a set of results correspondingto information returned by the search of the one or more databases mayinclude presenting an entry for the first person that includes (i) aname of the first person, and/or (ii) a policy number of a policyassociated with the first person.

Additionally or alternatively, presenting an interactive control thatenables the user to specify a relationship between the first person andthe loss event may include presenting an interactive control thatenables the user to select from among a plurality of relationships, theplurality of relationships including (i) a driver during the loss event,(ii) a participant in the loss event, and/or (iii) a party reporting theloss event.

Additionally or alternatively, causing the loss report information to bestored in the claims database may be in response to the user submittingthe loss report via a user-interactive submit control presented on theone or more display screens, and/or may include sending the loss reportinformation to a server remote from the computing device.

Additionally or alternatively, causing the loss report information to beautomatically added to the one or more loss reporting fields may be byone or more processors of the computing device, or may be by one or moreprocessors of one or more servers that are remote from the computingdevice.

Additionally or alternatively, the method may further comprisepresenting to the user, by the computing device and via the one or moredisplay screens, a loss report user interface display showing at leastone of the one or more loss reporting fields, and/or causing the lossreport information to be automatically added to the one or more lossreporting fields may include causing the loss report user interfacedisplay to show the loss report information in the at least one of theone or more loss reporting fields.

VIII. Exemplary Computing Device Embodiments

In one aspect, a computing system for facilitating handling ofinsurance-related calls may include one or more databases collectivelystoring policy and policyholder records of an insurance provider, one ormore processors, and a non-transitory memory. The memory may storeinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe one or more processors to access a caller identification system todetermine a phone number associated with a call (i) from an insurancecustomer, and/or (ii) handled by a user of a computing device. Theinstructions may also cause the processor(s) to automatically retrieve,using the determined phone number, customer information associated withthe insurance customer from the one or more databases. The customerinformation may include (i) a name of the insurance customer, and/or(ii) a policy number of an insurance policy of the insurance customer.The instructions may also cause the processor(s) to display, on the oneor more display screens, a customer overview including (i) the retrievedname, and/or (ii) the retrieved policy number. The computing system mayinclude additional, fewer or alternative components, and/or componentswith additional, less or alternative functionality, such as any of thecomponents and/or functionality discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the instructions may cause the one or more processors todisplay the customer overview by displaying, on the one or more displayscreens, a request for user confirmation of one or both of (i) theretrieved name, and (ii) the retrieved policy number, detectingconfirmation by the user of one or both of (i) the retrieved name, and(ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or in response to detecting theconfirmation by the user, displaying the customer overview on the one ormore display screens.

Additionally or alternatively, the instructions may further cause theone or more processors to use at least a portion of the retrievedcustomer information to automatically populate one or more fields thatare provided by a loss reporting tool and displayed on the one or moredisplay screens.

Additionally or alternatively, the customer information may include (i)the name of the insurance customer, (ii) the policy number of aninsurance policy of the insurance customer, and/or (iii) claim historyinformation regarding one or more claims associated with the insurancecustomer, and/or the customer overview may include (i) the retrievedname, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at least a portionof the retrieved claim history information.

Additionally or alternatively, the customer information may include (i)the name of the insurance customer, (ii) the policy number of aninsurance policy of the insurance customer, and/or (iii) communicationhistory information regarding one or more past communications involvingthe insurance customer, and/or the customer overview may include (i) theretrieved name, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at leasta portion of the retrieved communication history information.

Additionally or alternatively, the customer information may include (i)the name of the insurance customer, (ii) the policy number of aninsurance policy of the insurance customer, and/or (iii) familyinformation regarding one or more family members of the insurancecustomer, and/or the customer overview may include (i) the retrievedname, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at least a portionof the retrieved family information.

Additionally or alternatively, the customer overview may include (i) aname of a first family member, and/or (ii) a user-interactive controlthat enables the user to select from a plurality of relationships to theloss event, and/or the instructions may further cause the one or moreprocessors to detect a user selection via the user-interactive controlof a particular relationship from among the plurality of relationships,and/or use (i) information about the first family member, and/or (ii)the particular relationship, to automatically populate one or morefields that are provided by a loss reporting tool and displayed on theone or more display screens.

Additionally or alternatively, the customer information may include (i)the name of the insurance customer, (ii) the policy number of aninsurance policy of the insurance customer, and/or (iii) additionalpolicy information regarding one or more other insurance policies of theinsurance customer, and/or the customer overview may include (i) theretrieved name, (ii) the retrieved policy number, and/or (iii) at leasta portion of the retrieved additional policy information.

Additionally or alternatively, the one or more databases may include afirst database associated with a first insurance line and a seconddatabase associated with a second insurance line, and/or theinstructions may cause the one or more processors to automaticallyretrieve (i) a first portion of the customer information from the firstdatabase, and/or (ii) a second portion of the customer information fromthe second database.

In another aspect, a computing system for facilitating handling ofinsurance-related calls may include a claims database storinginformation for a plurality of insurance claims, and a computing devicecomprising one or more display screens and an input device. Thecomputing device may be configured to present to the user, via the oneor more display screens, one or more notes fields in which text may beentered by a user of the computing device, and receive, via the inputdevice, text that the user entered in at least one of the one or morenotes fields. The computing system may also include one or moreprocessors, and a non-transitory memory. The memory may storeinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe one or more processors to analyze the text received via the inputdevice to identify one or more keywords having potential relevance tothe loss event, and use the identified one or more keywords to causeloss report information to be automatically added to one or more lossreporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool. The computing devicemay be further configured to cause the loss report information to bestored in the claims database as a part of a loss report recordassociated with the loss event. The computing system may includeadditional, fewer, or alternative components, and/or components withadditional, less or alternative functionality, such as any of thecomponents and/or functionality discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the one or more keywords may include one or more wordsdescribing a location, the one or more loss reporting fields may includea loss location field, and the instructions may cause the one or moreprocessors to use the identified one or more keywords to cause adescription of the location to be automatically added to the losslocation field.

Additionally or alternatively, the one or more keywords may include aname of a person, the one or more loss reporting fields may include aninvolved person field, and the instructions may cause the one or moreprocessors to use the identified one or more keywords to cause the nameof the person to be automatically added to the involved person field.

Additionally or alternatively, the one or more keywords may include oneor more of (i) a make of a vehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle, and/or(iii) a year of the vehicle, the one or more loss reporting fields mayinclude one or more involved vehicle fields. The instructions may causethe one or more processors to use the identified one or more keywords tocause one or more of (i) the make of the vehicle, (ii) the model of thevehicle, and/or (iii) the year of the vehicle to be automatically addedto the involved vehicle field.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing system may include akeyword database storing a plurality of keywords, and/or theinstructions may cause the one or more processors to identify the one ormore keywords at least by comparing the received text to the pluralityof keywords stored in the keyword database.

Additionally or alternatively, the instructions may further cause theone or more processors to receive an indication of a first notescategory, among a plurality of notes categories, in which the text wasentered, and the instructions may cause the one or more processors toanalyze the received text to identify the one or more keywords at leastby analyzing the received text according to rules corresponding to thefirst notes category.

Additionally or alternatively, the instructions may cause the one ormore processors to cause the loss report information to be stored in theclaims database in response to the user submitting the loss report via auser-interactive submit control presented on the one or more displayscreens, and at least by sending the loss report information added tothe one or more loss reporting fields to a server remote from thecomputing device.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device, and/or one or moreservers remote from the computing device, may include the one or moreprocessors.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may further beconfigured to present to the user, via the one or more display screens,a loss report user interface display showing at least one of the one ormore loss reporting fields. The instructions may cause the one or moreprocessors to cause the loss report information to be automaticallyadded to the one or more loss reporting fields at least by causing theloss report user interface display to show the loss report informationin the at least one of the one or more loss reporting fields.

In another aspect, a computing system for facilitating handling ofinsurance-related calls may include a claims database storinginformation for a plurality of insurance claims, one or more databasescollectively storing information about a plurality of policies and aplurality of policyholders, and a computing device comprising one ormore display screens. The computing device may be configured to provide,via the one or more display screens, an interactive search displayhaving a search field for entering search terms. The computing systemmay also include one or more servers configured to use a set of one ormore search terms entered in the search field by a user of the computingdevice to perform a search of the one or more databases, one or moreprocessors, and a non-transitory memory storing instructions. Thecomputing device may further be configured to present to the user, viathe one or more display screens, (i) a set of results corresponding toinformation returned by the search of the one or more databases, the setof results including an entry for a first person associated with atleast one of the plurality of insurance policies, and/or (ii) auser-interactive control that enables the user to specify a relationshipbetween the first person and the loss event. The instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, may cause the one or moreprocessors to use (i) a particular relationship, specified by the uservia the user-interactive control, between the first person and the lossevent, and/or (ii) information associated with the first person, tocause loss report information to be automatically added to one or moreloss reporting fields provided by a loss reporting tool. The computingdevice may further be configured to cause the loss report information tobe stored in the claims database as a part of a loss report recordassociated with the loss event. The computing system may includeadditional, fewer or alternative components, and/or components withadditional, less or alternative functionality, such as any of thecomponents and/or functionality discussed elsewhere herein.

For instance, the interactive search display may further include one ormore user-interactive mode controls for selecting a search mode fromamong a plurality of search modes, at least one of the plurality ofsearch modes causing a remote server to perform a search using a thirdparty, web-based search engine.

Additionally or alternatively, the one or more databases may include afirst database storing auto insurance policy information and a seconddatabase storing home insurance policy information.

Additionally or alternatively, the set of results corresponding toinformation returned by the search of the one or more databases mayinclude an entry for the first person that includes (i) a name of thefirst person and (ii) a policy number of a policy associated with thefirst person.

Additionally or alternatively, the user-interactive control that enablesthe user to specify a relationship between the first person and the lossevent may enable the user to select from among a plurality ofrelationships, the plurality of relationships including (i) a driverduring the loss event, (ii) a participant in the loss event, and/or(iii) a party reporting the loss event.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may be configured tocause the loss report information to be stored in the claims database inresponse to the user submitting the loss report via a user-interactivesubmit control presented on the one or more display screens, and/or atleast by sending the loss report information to a server remote from thecomputing device.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may include the oneor more processors or the servers may include the one or moreprocessors.

Additionally or alternatively, the computing device may further beconfigured to present to the user, via the one or more display screens,a loss report user interface display showing at least one of the one ormore loss reporting fields, and/or the instructions, when executed bythe one or more processors, may further cause the one or more processorsto cause the loss report user interface display to show the loss reportinformation in the at least one of the one or more loss reportingfields.

IX. Exemplary Customer Overview and Workbench

In one aspect, the present embodiments relate to insurance providers,customer service, and handling insurance claims. A system and method mayprovide an easy to use interface that will locate commonly usedapplications into a single user interface for insurance claimassociates. Each item linked to the product may either be opened atstartup and be ready for the associates' use, or available as a shortcutin an integrated tool area. The associate will not need to seek out eachapplication, open, and then position it on the monitor screen(s) whilepreparing for the day's business.

“Customer Overview” functionality may be provided that will help claimassociates do the following: (1) quickly gain familiarity with thecustomer and his or her most recent contacts with the insuranceprovider; (2) provide an “at a glance” view of the informationassociated with, and/or communicated to, the customer—information aboutthe customer, policies, agent(s), family members, recent phone/emailinteractions with the insurance provider, and claim history (for claimsegment representatives)—when a customer calls in and his or her accountis accessed; and/or (3) quickly view and access insurance policyinformation for the customer. Information displayed in the CustomerOverview may be linkable to the actual content.

Tool integration may also be provided. Many applications may beintegrated within a so-called “Workbench” and its components to worktogether. For instance, search functionality may be integrated withvarious applications. Several search options may be provided via asingle interface and may result in integration with other applications.Data and user interface integration may also be provided. Multiplesources/applications may be used to collect customer data and present astreamlined display in one consolidated location. A smart notepad mayalso be integrated with the present embodiments. The smart notepad maybe configured to recognize data typed into a text editor application,and to categorize it for direct entry into a companion program. Forexample: “Ford” would be recognized as a vehicle make for entry into avehicle make field.

In one aspect, a workbench, virtual hub, and/or graphical user interfacemay be provided that displays information or visual representationsbased upon caller ID (identification) or telephone number of incomingcalls. One or more processors may determine the caller ID or telephonenumber associated with an incoming call, such as a call coming into acustomer call center. After which, the one or more processors may searcha customer database to automatically pull up and/or access customerinformation and/or customer insurance policy information (thatcorresponds to that caller ID and/or telephone number associated withthe incoming call).

The present embodiments may use the incoming telephone number as a keythat triggers other activity, such as displaying information (e.g.,customer information, location, insurance policy information) associatedwith the incoming telephone number. As a result, the incoming telephonenumber may be used to (1) automate certain processes, such as launchingvarious software applications, such as loss reporting or claim handlingapplications for insurance purposes; and/or (2) reduce redundancy, suchas transferring customers to various internal call representatives,agents, or associates, and having each insurance provider representativeask the customer for their information (name, address, location,telephone number, etc.).

A text editor portion of the virtual hub or graphical user interface maybe configured to recognize certain keywords, such as address, location,streets, city, states, telephone numbers, person names, insured names,etc., and then prepopulate certain fields of the virtual hub orgraphical user interface with correct (customer and/or insurance policy)information. As such, a call representative may take a call and speakwith a customer. Certain customer information (or likely customerinformation) and/or insurance policy information for that customer maybe immediately presented on the screen based upon caller ID or telephonenumber.

As the insurance representative or associate talks with a customer(e.g., gathers information associated with a vehicle accident or otherinsurance claim), the associate may type a summary of the discussioninto a text editor box. The present embodiments may then includesearching the text editor box for various keywords and pre-populatingcertain fields of a virtual claims or loss reporting page/screen tofacilitate prompt and automated claim submission. In other words, as theassociate is documenting or capturing loss information provided by thecustomer, the notepad may be tagging keywords and placing them inrelevant fields, such as location, vehicle make and model, number ofinjuries, extent of vehicle damage, details about the accident, etc.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of presentinginsurance-related information on a display may be provided. The methodmay include (1) determining, via one or more processors, a caller ID ortelephone number of an incoming customer call; (2) retrieving, via theone or more processors, customer information (or likely customerinformation) and/or insurance policy information for that customer froma memory unit, data structure, or database (or from several dispersedmemory units or databases) based upon or otherwise using the caller IDor telephone number of the incoming customer call; and/or (3) displayingor updating a virtual text or graphical representation, via the one ormore processors, within a virtual hub or user interface on a display ordisplay screen that includes the customer information (or likelycustomer information) and/or insurance policy information to facilitatea call representative or associate handling a call from a customerwithout having to ask the customer or likely customer for rudimentarycustomer information (e.g., name, address, location, telephone number,etc.). The virtual hub or user interface may include a text pad oreditor functionality that allows the call representative or associate toenter text associated with the customer call. The method may furtherinclude (4) receiving, via the one or more processors, callrepresentative or associate entry of text associated with a customercall, such as text associated with an insurance claim or issue; (5)analyzing the text, via the one or more processors, for keywordsassociated with insurance or the customer; (6) updating, via the one ormore processors, the virtual hub or user interface (and/or one or morepages/screens or applications) based upon the keywords identified, suchas pre-populating certain user interface or virtual insurance claimfields; and/or (7) storing, via the one or more processors, the updatedvirtual hub or user interface, and/or keyword(s) or associated customerinformation, in a memory unit, data structure, or database forsubsequent use by other and/or remotely located call representatives orassociates to facilitate avoiding asking the customer the same questionor questions more than once. The method may include additional, fewer,or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

The virtual hub (or workbench) and/or user interface may present asummary of customer information, insurance policy information, and/orclaim information. Also displayed within the virtual hub or userinterface may be an interaction history that may include a history ofinteractions with the customer, such as whether the customer has talkedwith an insurance agent, call representative, or associate about aclaim, whether the customer has filed a claim, whether the customer hasa claim pending, etc.

The virtual hub and/or user interface (and/or associated processors) mayalso analyze text from the text editor or notepad to determine alocation, such as a current customer or vehicle location or a locationof an accident. The location may be used to display a virtual map. Forthe virtual map, the call representative or associate may view a type ofintersection, for example, at which a vehicle accident occurred, whichmay help the call representative or associate (or a loss reportingspecialist) handle a claim associated with the vehicle accident. The mapmay be used to find local body shops or repair facilities in thevicinity of the current location of a damaged vehicle. The callrepresentative or associate may direct the customer a nearest body shop,in one embodiment, for vehicle repair, and/or make arrangements with thenearest body shop to repair the vehicle.

Some embodiments may have automatic or manual electronic searchingfunctionality. For instance, customer address or current customer orvehicle location may be used for initial searches and/or for subsequentsearches. The address or location information may be used to present amap of local body shops. The address or location information may also bepassed from one application to another. For instance, the address orlocation information may be used to search for weather events in thearea that may impact the customer or vehicle, as well as for potentialcatastrophic events, such as hurricanes, that may also negatively impactthe customer or vehicle.

X. Additional Considerations

The following additional considerations apply to the foregoingdiscussion. Throughout this specification, plural instances mayimplement operations or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. These and othervariations, modifications, additions, and improvements fall within thescope of the subject matter herein.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

In addition, use of “a” or “an” is employed to describe elements andcomponents of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the invention. Thisdescription should be read to include one or at least one and thesingular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meantotherwise.

Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciatestill additional alternative structural and functional designs for theprovision, operation and/or use of an integrated tool for improvedworkflow efficiency through the principles disclosed herein. Thus, whileparticular embodiments and applications have been illustrated anddescribed, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are notlimited to the precise construction and components disclosed herein.Various modifications, changes and variations, which will be apparent tothose skilled in the art, may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the method and apparatus disclosed herein without departingfrom the spirit and scope defined in the appended claims.

The patent claims at the end of this patent application are not intendedto be construed under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) unless traditionalmeans-plus-function language is expressly recited, such as “means for”or “step for” language being explicitly recited in the claim(s).

What is claimed:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:presenting to a user, by a workbench application executing on acomputing device, a first user interface for a text entry applicationexecuting on the computing device, wherein the first user interfaceincludes one or more notes fields in which free-form text may be enteredby the user, the first user interface is presented on one or moredisplay screens, and the workbench application is linked to the textentry application via a first application programming interface (API);receiving, by the workbench application and via one or more inputdevices and the first user interface, free-form text that the userentered in at least one of the one or more notes fields, wherein thefree-form text is received by the workbench application from the linkedtext entry application via the first API; analyzing, by a textrecognition unit of the workbench application executing on the computingdevice, the received free-form text to identify one or more relevantkeywords; presenting to the user, by the workbench application, a seconduser interface for a data reporting application executing on thecomputing device, wherein the second user interface is presented on atleast one of the one or more display screens, and the workbenchapplication is linked to the data reporting application via a secondAPI; identifying, by an auto-population unit of the workbenchapplication executing on the computing device, one or more data entryfields of the second user interface corresponding to the one or morekeywords; automatically populating, by the auto-population unit of theworkbench application via the second API, the one or more data entryfields of the second user interface based upon the one or more keywords;and causing, by the workbench application via the second API, the linkeddata reporting application to store data for the one or more data entryfields in a data storage record.
 2. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein analyzing, by the text recognition unit, the receivedfree-form text to identify the one or more keywords includes analyzingthe received free-form text to identify one or more words describing alocation.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, whereinautomatically populating, by the auto-population unit, the one or moredata entry fields includes automatically populating a location fieldusing the one or more words describing the location.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing, by the textrecognition unit, the received free-form text to identify the one ormore keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text to identifya name of a person.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4,wherein automatically populating, by the auto-population unit, the oneor more data entry fields includes automatically populating an involvedperson field using the name of the person.
 6. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein analyzing, by the text recognition unit, thereceived free-form text to identify the one or more keywords includesanalyzing the received free-form text to identify one or more of (i) amake of a vehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle, or (iii) a year of thevehicle.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereinautomatically populating, by the auto-population unit, the one or moredata entry fields includes automatically populating one or more involvedvehicle fields using the one or more of (i) the make of the vehicle,(ii) the model of the vehicle, or (iii) the year of the vehicle.
 8. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein: receiving, by theworkbench application from the linked text entry application via thefirst API, the free-form text that the user entered in the one or morenotes fields includes receiving an indication of a first notes category,among a plurality of notes categories, in which the free-form text wasentered; and analyzing, by the text recognition unit, the receivedfree-form text to identify the one or more keywords includes analyzingthe received free-form text according to one or more rules correspondingto the first notes category.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim1, wherein the data storage record represent a report of a loss causingevent.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the firstuser interface is presented on a first display screen of the one or moredisplay screens, and the second user interface is presented on a seconddisplay screen of the one or more display screens.
 11. A computingsystem, comprising: one or more display screens; one or more inputdevices; and one or more processors configured to execute a workbenchapplication to; present a first user interface for a text entryapplication to a user, wherein the first user interface includes one ormore notes fields in which free-form text may be entered by the user,the first user interface is presented on at least one of the one or moredisplay screens, and the workbench application is linked to the textentry application via a first application programming interface (API);receive, via the one or more input devices and the first user interface,free-form text that the user entered in at least one of the one or morenotes fields, wherein the free-form text is received by the workbenchapplication from the linked text entry application via the first API;analyze, by a text recognition unit of the workbench application, thereceived free-form text to identify one or more relevant keywords;present a second user interface for a data reporting application to theuser, wherein the second user interface is presented on at least one ofthe one or more display screens, and the workbench application is linkedto the data reporting application via a second API; identify, by anauto-population unit of the workbench application, one or more dataentry fields of the second user interface corresponding to the one ormore keywords; automatically populating, by the auto-population unit ofthe workbench application via the second API, the one or more data entryfields of the second user interface based upon the one or more keywords;and causing, via the second API, the linked data reporting applicationto store data for the one or more data entry fields in a data storagerecord.
 12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein analyzing, by thetext recognition unit, the received free-form text to identify the oneor more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text toidentify one or more words describing a location.
 13. The computingsystem of claim 12, wherein automatically populating, with theauto-population unit, the one or more data entry fields includescausing, via the second API, the linked data reporting application topopulate a location field using the one or more words describing thelocation.
 14. The computing system of claim 11, wherein analyzing, bythe text recognition unit, the received free-form text to identify theone or more keywords includes analyzing the received free-form text toidentify a name of a person.
 15. The computing system of claim 14,wherein automatically populating, with the auto-population unit, the oneor more data entry fields includes causing, via the second API, thelinked data reporting application to populate an involved person fieldusing the name of the person.
 16. The computing system of claim 11,wherein analyzing, by the text recognition unit, the received free-formtext to identify the one or more keywords includes analyzing thereceived free-form text to identify one or more of (i) a make of avehicle, (ii) a model of the vehicle, or (iii) a year of the vehicle.17. The computing system of claim 11, wherein automatically populating,with the auto-population unit, the one or more data entry fieldsincludes causing, via the second API, the linked data reportingapplication to populate one or more involved vehicle fields using theone or more of (i) the make of the vehicle, (ii) the model of thevehicle, or (iii) the year of the vehicle.
 18. The computing system ofclaim 11, wherein: receiving the free-form text that the user entered inthe one or more notes fields includes receiving an indication of a firstnotes category, among a plurality of notes categories, in which thefree-form text was entered; and analyzing the received free-form text toidentify the one or more keywords includes analyzing the receivedfree-form text according to one or more rules corresponding to the firstnotes category.
 19. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the datastorage record represent a report of a loss causing event.
 20. One ormore non-transitory, computer-readable media storing instructions that,when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to execute a workbench application to: present a first userinterface for a text entry application to a user, wherein the first userinterface includes one or more notes fields in which free-form text maybe entered by the user, the first user interface is presented on one ormore display screens, and the workbench application is linked to thetext entry application via a first application programming interface(API); receive, via one or more input devices and the first userinterface, free-form text that the user entered in at least one of theone or more notes fields, wherein the free-form text is received by theworkbench application from the linked text entry application via thefirst API; analyze, by a text recognition unit of the workbenchapplication, the received free-form text to identify one or morerelevant keywords; present a second user interface for a data reportingapplication to the user, wherein the second user interface is presentedon at least one of the one or more display screens, and the workbenchapplication is linked to the data reporting application via a secondAPI; identify, by an auto-population unit of the workbench application,one or more data entry fields of the second user interface correspondingto the one or more keywords; automatically populate, by theauto-population unit of the workbench application via the second API,the one or more data entry fields of the second user interface basedupon the one or more keywords; and cause, via the second API, the linkeddata reporting application to store data for the one or more data entryfields in a data storage record.
 21. The one or more non-transitory,computer-readable media of claim 20, wherein the instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the workbench applicationto: receive the free-form text that the user entered in the one or morenotes fields by receiving an indication of a first notes category, amonga plurality of notes categories, in which the free-form text wasentered; and analyze the received free-form text to identify the one ormore keywords by analyzing the received free-form text according to oneor more rules corresponding to the first notes category.